Yesterday the State Department announced it would postpone an International Woman of Courage Award for Samira Ibrahim, an Egyptian women’s rights activist, because of anti-Semitic and anti-American tweets on her Twitter account.
State Department Victoria Nuland said on Thursday Ibrahim had denied the tweets were her own, asserting she had been hacked.
“What I have here is that of some 18,000 tweets on her account, she is denying authoring some four that were brought to our attention, two of which were anti-Semitic, two of which celebrated terrorism,” Nuland said. “As you may know, she has previously asserted that her accounts were hacked recently and in May 2012.”
Now, the Weekly Standard reports that Ibrahim tells a very different story on her Arabic Twitter page:Finally, Ibrahim herself has spoken, writing in Arabic on her Twitter page. Egyptian democracy activist Mina Rezkalla provides the translation: “I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award.”
The other nine women selected for the award will be honored at a ceremony today by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama. The annual award goes to women around the world “who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.”
